UNC!

Hi!

So today was my first day of classes - I am taking 4 papers or 'courses' as they call them here because a 'paper' is an essay. Two linguistics, one communications and one american studies. It was a very tiring day but good to get started. It seems like I will not be able to miss classes as they have an attendance roll and also laptops are banned from 3 of my 4 classes as they like people to be 'mentally prepared'.

My first class was communications - making and manipulating race in the USA. It is mostly about black culture and seems like it will be quite interesting - the workload doesn't seem much more than what I would do at home for that one.

American Studies was an American food culture class and this one seems pretty sweet too - an assignment is going to the Farmer's market and checking out the food there. I also have to cook a dish and present it to the class so I might cook the good old NZ pav - might need a recipe Mum!!

Linguistics was my last class of the day - this was by far the hardest.. I have an exam on Tuesday on basic phonetics.. I can't remember anything so I will have to do a bit of study.. lame. My other linguistics class is tomorrow and I have homework to do before it even starts!

So even though I have lots of work throughout the semester I don't have exams or my exams are worth 5% or something ridiculous!

I have spent my time at UNC by the pool mostly so I don't have tooooo much to update on.. except new tan lines.

I am off to dinner with my mentor and some of her friends tonight so that should be good fun.

Sorry for the boring post!! Holiday is now over for sure! :(

Here are some pics of the uni, it is a very pretty campus with lots of trees and old buildings.

 This is a group from my floor outside the library

 Walking to the "pit" which is where the student store and central part of campus is

 The wishing well where you drink out of for good luck on classes - we didn't do this today however as seniors abuse and waterbomb any freshman or transfers that try and do it - sounds familiar to dunedin!

 Lecture theatres are on the outside of the grass in this area

 Amanda and I

Real Life Role Play... no joke.

Disneyland!

We have left California and are now in Chapel Hill NC!

We spent our last day in Santa Monica with the other two kiwi girls that were in our room in the hostel. It was such a fun day! We hired trikes from this stall by the pier and then biked down the boardwalk to Venice beach. It was SO hot. I now have epic tan lines which are going to be very hard to get rid of! We watched some hard out people skateboarding at the skate park there and then biked our way back to Santa Monica where we had lunch and went our separate ways as Renee and Chrystal were heading back to NZ that day and we were carrying on to Anaheim. I am soo sick of burgers and fries!!

We took a shuttle to Anaheim and spent the afternoon in the hotel pool. It was so good - we were thinking of you all back home in the snow!!!!!

The next two days we spent at Disneyland. It was so much fun. We spent the first day in the original park and then went to California Adventure on the second day. The rollercoasters were so much fun! We went on nearly every ride that was open. My favourite was the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad  this is a video of it here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17o4fRQ5m0E&feature=pyv&ad=9344848075&kw=big%20thunder%20mountain%20railroad and ignore the screaming. It's way more fun actually being on the rollercoaster than watching that. Obviously.. haha.

The next day we went to California Adventure which is the second park at Disneyland. We went on the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror which was the most TERRIFYING ride of my life. You went up this creepy tower in an elevator and it was like the big dropping ride in Australia except this time you went up and down and up and down and it was all in the dark and windows would open and you would see how high you were and then it dropped you again. The photo of me and Knic is hilarious!! We are grabbing onto each other and screaming so bad. A little girl came up to Nicole and gave her a hug because she thought we looked so scared. There are lots of summer camps that go through Disneyland as well and we could hear all the little kids laughing at our photo haha. So shame. But it was sooo scary!!!

That night we had to catch the plane at 1.40am to get to North Carolina. We jumped on the Bus and a group of Italians were on there who were hilarious. We are beautiful ladies apparently and they wanted us to go stay at the Hilton with them but unfortunately we could not afford it!! We arrived at Chapel Hill at 11.34am local time so it was about a 6 hour trip across the country with a stop in Memphis for an hour where there was the most insane lightning storm. Alex, my mentor's friend picked me up who was really cool and we went out for lunch with Sarah, Knic's mentor and some other exchange students at a local Southern diner. We tried corn bread it was so cakey! Alex took me on a tour of the campus and then dropped me off at Granville which was really cool, she is so nice.

Guess what is legal in North Carolina.. riding in the bed of a ute down the highways. Brad, one of the guys on my floor from Australia bought a ute and a whole group of us needed to get to Walmart to buy some stuff for our rooms. So off we went in the ute and it was totally legit and normal to everyone! This place is crazy! But so pretty as well - lots of trees and old beautiful buildings.

Last night Amanda, Talia, Knicole, Kim and I went to a local restaurant called Spanky's where we had some pasta and wine and played trivia! It was so funny. American guys love their pastel polo shirts and beige pants waaay too much. We spotted about 15 of them.

Off to our first frat party tonight! Not sure what to expect haha.

Hope all is well at home

xxx

They be grindin'

Hi everyone!

The past few days have been lots of fun. On Friday we went shopping (don't worry Mum I didn't spend too much) and then at night we went on a pub crawl with the hostel. We have had two other New Zealanders and an Australian in our room and we all went together with the other hostellers. We drank these massive ciders which pretty much came in mini yard glasses. Unfortunately my camera hadn't charged so I wasn't able to get any photos but they were insane!! SO MUCH GRINDING IN THE USA!!!! It's hilarious watching all the Americans dance to their hip hop music.

On Saturday we went to the Getty Museum which was designed by Richard Meier .. some dude who also designed architecture in Spain which I did a paper about so this was nerdily interesting to me. There was a Cuban photography exhibition and the original Che Guevara photograph was there - also nerdily interesting to me because of Spanish haha. The gardens are so pretty though - you look out over the entire LA city. Nicole and I managed to find our way through LA on the bus system to get to the Getty and then find our way back - luckily I had her or I would have ended up on the opposite side of town by getting on the wrong bus!! Such a small town girl haha.

Yesterday we went on a hike with another group from the hostel in the Santa Monica mountains. We were warned about rattlesnakes but unfortunately we didn't see any!! It was soooo hot. We were planning on going to the beach but when we got back to Santa Monica city it was actually quite cold there so we went looking through the shops again. Last night we met up with our hiking group from the hostel and went to a British pub for a drink then down to the pier to go on the rollercoaster and ferris wheel which was so much fun.

Today we are off to Anaheim for 2 days at Disneyland!!!!

Hope you are staying warm in the snow - I'm getting a good tan here ;)

Made it!!!!

Hi everyone!

We have arrived in Santa Monica! Bags were not on our side during the trip - my hand luggage broke in Chch and then our bags got put on the flight after us but it all worked out so all good!!! Spent the first day just checking out some of Santa Monica - the pier and the shops! Dresses are $12 at H&M! But I've been a good girl and not bought any clothes yet... got to make it to North Carolina within the luggage weight limit haha. There are heaps of sidewalk attractions - a man holding a snake down by the pier, a guy with bunnies and one with parrots. You can pay them $1 and get a photo or they're tricksters and come and place them in your hands so you have to give them something.


It is so hot and humid here!!!!! A nice change from cold Dunedin and Invercargill haha. We are staying in a hostel so today we did a tour through Hollywood. It was very cool. Started out at Venice beach which is the one up from Santa Monica so checked out all the stalls and stuff there - lots of medicinal marijuana shops everywhere haha. Ended up buying some rap dudes music off him because he was a tricky one and signed it for me so I had to pay. My name is "Pipe" apparently. Philippa and Pip seem to be difficult names to grasp here!! We got to see some celeb's houses like Lindsay Lohan, Whoopi Goldberg, Adam Sandler, the Fresh Prince of Bel Air house etc. and then on to Rodeo Drive where I will shop when I am extremely rich and then onto the Hollywood walk of fame. Sooo many people and LA just stretches out for miles! We ended up at the Hollywood sign and it's a bit over rated. Seems so small compared to what you see on the movies.


Going to check out Universal studios and the getty museum later on in the week and off to Disneyland on Monday before heading over to NC.


Hope you are all good at home, let me know what's been going on :)

Lots of love,

Pipe xx